Recent Articles

Malaysia – Some 200,000 canned drinks of various
flavours worth about RM200,000 were seized by the Islamic religious
authority from a company in Taman Selamat here today for carrying an
expired Halal logo.

The issue of Halal tourism continues to get attention, with Oman Air also coming into the picture. With the expected rise in Middle eastern tourism, plus the increasing number of Muslims who travel are likely to mean that this issue will get some serious consideration. As with other similar issues, the question will be how to attract the Halal traveller without alienating the rest of the market.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said that Malacca State Development Corporation would be developing a
halal hub in a 2ha site in Serkam, with the construction of 34
workshops and 10 shophouses at a cost of RM9.1mil.

The sultanate’s drive to push into
the halal market that is worth over US$600 billion, catering to 1.6
billion muslims worldwide, can also be leveraged through Asean’s
economic integration if the country can get its internal roadmap for
halal branding and promotion on track.

New trends identified at the opening of the World Travel Market 2007 in the UK
included the rise of Halal tourism in the Middle East, the role of
mobile phones in revolutionizing the Asian travel industry and the
growth of “voluntourism.”

Travel industry officials, including those from Islamic countries, have
criticised the idea of creating a special airline to cater to religious
Muslims as “impractical and unworkable” after a report at World Travel
Market (WTM) said such a service is needed.

A four-day course on Halal audit training for twenty five participants from the
Agriculture Department, Religious Council, State Mufti’s Office,
Syariah Affairs Department, Department of Health Services, Fisheries
Department and National Accreditation and Standard Centrewill be held held in Brunei Darassalam. They will be following the guidelines of the Halal Standard Brunei launched and their Halal Conference in August.

Once again Thailand is looking for new markets for its Halal range of products. Local government officials and halal food producers in
Thailand’s five southernmost border provinces met Tuesday to discuss
the participation of local halal food producers in the Paris Halal
Expo, according to Pranai Suwannarat, director of the Southern Border
Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC).

Teolulo T. Pasawa, director of the DTI Southern Mindanao’s National
Economic Research and Business Assistance Center (Nerbac), said the
good manufacturing practices training was held on October 27, 2007. The Halal Products Retail Merchandising seminar
was held on November 14 at the Davao Medical School Foundation.

This unique joint venture partnership between the supermarket chain and
Birmingham-based “National Halal Food Group” is seen as a
groundbreaking move for both parties and reflects a growing demand from
the Muslim community for Halal meat and poultry products.

The world’s first international halal
brand, which is expected to be launched by the middle of next year, is
being developed by the Brunei government with the involvement of
Australian food producers. Brian Norwood, chairman of Elders International Australia Ltd, the
company that is co-ordinating the project in Australia, told Bernama
the brand would be carried by only those products that are
“unquestionably genuine halal”.

The deal by the National Halal group in Birmingham to sell Halal meat via their own store-in-store is a ground-breaking move for the UK Halal market. National Halal sell only high quality unstunned meat, and this will naturally cause some controversy, especially in the UK where the animal welfare lobby is very vocal. National Halal defend their non-stun policy by saying that it is the most trauma-free method, a position that we support.

Sadia, the Brazilian poultry giant is set to invest 57million USD in a factory in the UAE. Company exports to the Middle East total US$ 550 million a year. In the
first nine months of 2007 alone, of the total Sadia exports of 2.4
billion Brazilian reais (US$ 1.4 billion), 22% were to the Arab market. Expect to see more of this…

REGIONAL
tourism players will be advised at this month’s World Travel Market
(WTM) to exploit a new category of tourism dubbed Halal Tourism. Catering to the needs of Muslim travelers represents a vastly underdeveloped market niche, one which we expect to see growing over the next few years.

The question of Halal and Kosher gelatin is being promoted by Joe Regenstein at Cornell University.
Regenstein, head of the Cornell Kosher and Halal Food Initiative, said 99 percent of the 272,500 tons of gelatin produced in 2003 came from pork or non-religiously slaughtered beef. Clearly, with 2 billion Halal consumers, there is a potential market for fish-based gelatin products.
“When we talk about globalization, the fact that we don’t talk about
halal foods in most cases is a major oversight,” Regenstein said.

The airline, which was formed in 2005
and is based in Sheffield, will operate flights twice a week from
Nottingham to Islamabad via Sharjah. A unique feature of the airline was the serving of halal
meals and non-alcoholic drinks on flights. This new move reinforces the fact that Halal has an important role to play in the food service industry.

Malaysia said Thursday it plans to develop a
“halal” meningitis vaccine jointly with Cuba within the next two years. This may the first of many steps to develop a full selection of Halal pharmaceutical products.

The issue of developing international Halal standards continues to appear in all corners of the world. This issue was recently brought up in the Australian parliament, to use the Australian Government Muslim Slaughter (AGMS) programme as an international benchmark, but it was rejected.

We expect to see some further initiatives on international standards coming up under the OIC umbrella in the near future.

Halo Skincare was launched a fortnight ago by Soni Zuberi Shah, after
her own search for trusted halal skincare products revealed that there
was very little choice in the UK market for those wishing to make a
faith-based skincare purchase.